Out for a drive
Here, it’s winter time. When looking out the window isn’t enough. Today, I decided to go for a drive. During a storm.
Not a long one; our mail is delivered in a community locker, about three kilometers away (I didn’t want a box at the end of the lane that would constantly be at the whim of a plow driver during the winter). And my mail, usually, isn’t of great importance. Truth told, I just wanted to see if my skills were up to the test.
The drift behind the car was already beaten down by an earlier departure, so getting on the road didn’t require much preparation. I adjusted my mirrors, turned on my lights and headed west. Over known territory, based on summer experience.
In winter, forget the known… suddenly, there are short stretches with the familiar yellow center line. Those stretch give way, in a matter of seconds, to moving whiteness. Planning to travel in a straight line proves insufficient, when your local road goes up and down and in sweeping curves, all at the same time.
And that drifting snow? Fills in the ditches. The road looks much wider than it really is. You have to try and steer down the center, although other drivers heading in your direction are adopting the same strategy. Keep right, in the face of confrontation. Today, little happened; I had a route that only required minutes of my attention, in either direction. The most dangerous part of the trip came down to my leaving the lot by the locker; limited visibility coupled with the crazed tendency of folks with trucks to “fly low” meant keeping my eye on the goal (arrive alive, etc). I was home before I knew it, literally; the driveway was just a shadow.
